Collections

ASIS&T (or ASIST) is a professional association which creates, organizes, disseminates, and applies knowledge regarding information and its transfer. ASIS&T was preceded by the American Documentation Institute (ADI), which was founded in 1937 with the goal of acquiring and indexing the knowledge of the world. Name changes followed in 1968 (ASIS) and 2000 (ASIS&T). The records consist of correspondence, business and financial documents, minutes, bylaws, memoranda, manuscript and printed journal articles, printed promotional material, microfiche, photographs, and audio and video tapes covering the society's activities (and those of its predecessor organizations) from 1925 to 2001, with the bulk falling between the 1930s through 2000. Organizational business affairs and activities, including the conceptual evolution of its purpose and mission, are well-documented in several series, most notably in the Council Files. These broad areas are also covered in the Committee Files, but in a more detailed fashion, focusing on specific activities or issues. This series also represents the scope of ASIS's liaison committees, ranging from the American Library Association to the Egyptian Society for Information Technology. Documents generated by ASIS-approved regional and student chapters and the organized professional groups within ASIS devoted to special interests (SIGs) are found in the large Chapter Files and Special Interest Groups series. The Publications series includes significant editorial and administrative documents as well as some manuscript submissions for the "Annual review of information science and technology, and the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science." Special note may be made of the Special Libraries Association Merger Files which chronicle the history of the ultimately unsuccessful merger of ASIS and SLA. The main correspondents found in the collection include: Robert McAfee, Assistant Executive Director; Joshua I. Smith, Executive director (1973-1976); Bonnie Carroll, Councilor and President; Linda Resnik, Executive Director (1985-1988); Samuel Beatty, Executive Director (1976-1984); and John Brokenshire, ASIS Financial Officer.

For the purpose of clarity, the organization shall for the most part be referred to as "ASIS"--the name by which it has been known for most of its history and to which it is mainly referred in the records--throughout this section.

Throughout the record group, the year listed for a folder is often the fiscal year rather than calendar year. This is particularly so for records in the Financial series. The fiscal year for ASIS runs from October through September.

Simon "Si" Newman was a leader in indexing, information retrieval, and machine translation research. He worked for the United States Patent Office, as well as National Insurance and his own documentation and insurance companies. His papers contain his research, own notes and writings, and correspondence with others in the field of information science, communication, and documentation.

The Simon Newman papers are divided into six series: American University, Conferences, Name and Topical, Personal, the United States Patent Office, and Writings. The papers mostly contain the extensive research that Newman did on indexing, machine translation and information retrieval, but also include papers from his time working for the United States Patent Office, American University, and for his own documentation and insurance firms. Also included are Newman’s writings on different subjects, including his work at the patent office and his studies on language and computing, some personal items, graded papers from his time as a professor at American University, documents from different conferences, and both personal and professional correspondence. The grand majority of the collection is paper documents; there is one small item of realia in the form of a banner from a conference, and a set of slides from teaching a class at the patent office. The papers cover approximately from 1955 to 1985, with the bulk of dates being from the sixties.